{"677707":{"#nid":"677707","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Faculty Pluses School\u2019s Expertise in Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo new assistant professors joined the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) faculty this fall.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/lumimim.github.io\/\u0022\u003ELu Mi\u003C\/a\u003E comes to Georgia Tech from the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, where she was a Shanahan Foundation Fellow.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe sat down with Mi to learn more about her background and to introduce her to the Georgia Tech and College of Computing communities.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFaculty:\u003C\/strong\u003E Lu Mi, assistant professor, School of CSE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E Computational Neuroscience, Machine Learning\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEducation:\u003C\/strong\u003E Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.S. in Measurement, Control, and Instruments from Tsinghua University\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHometown:\u003C\/strong\u003E Sichuan, China (home of the giant pandas)\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow have your first few months at Georgia Tech gone so far?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019ve really enjoyed my time at Georgia Tech. Developing a new course has been both challenging and rewarding. I\u2019ve learned a lot from the process and conversations with students. My colleagues have been incredibly welcoming, and I\u2019ve had the opportunity to work with some very smart and motivated students here at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou hit the ground running this year by teaching your CSE 8803 course on brain-inspired machine intelligence. What important concepts do you teach in this class?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis course focuses on comparing biological neural networks with artificial neural networks. We explore questions like: How does the brain encode information, perform computations, and learn? What can neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) learn from each other? Key topics include spiking neural networks, neural coding, and biologically plausible learning rules. By the end of the course, I expect students to have a solid understanding of neural algorithms and the emerging NeuroAI field.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhen and how did you become interested in computational neuroscience in the first place?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019ve been fascinated by how the brain works since I was young. My formal engagement with the field began during my Ph.D. research, where we developed algorithms to help neuroscientists map large-scale synaptic wiring diagrams in the brain. Since then, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to collaborate with researchers at institutions like Harvard, the Janelia Research Campus, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and the University of Washington on various exciting projects in this field.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat about your experience and research are you currently most proud of?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019m particularly proud of the framework we developed to integrate black-box machine learning models with biologically realistic mechanistic models. We use advanced deep-learning techniques to infer unobserved information and combine this with prior knowledge from mechanistic models. This allows us to test hypotheses by applying different model variants. I believe this framework holds great potential to address a wide range of scientific questions, leveraging the power of AI.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat about Georgia Tech convinced you to accept a faculty position?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech CSE felt like a perfect fit for my background and research interests, particularly within the AI4Science initiative and the development of computational tools for biology and neuroscience. My work overlaps with several colleagues here, and I\u2019m excited to collaborate with them. Georgia Tech also has a vibrant and impactful \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/neuro.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ENeuro Next Initiative\u003C\/a\u003E community, which is another great attraction.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat are your hobbies and interests when not researching and teaching?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI enjoy photography and love spending time with my two corgi dogs, especially taking them for walks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat have you enjoyed most so far about living in Atlanta?\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI\u2019ve really appreciated the peaceful, green environment with so many trees. I\u2019m also looking forward to exploring more outdoor activities, like fishing and golfing.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo new assistant professors joined the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) faculty this fall.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/lumimim.github.io\/\u0022\u003ELu Mi\u003C\/a\u003E comes to Georgia Tech from the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, where she was a Shanahan Foundation Fellow.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe sat down with Mi to learn more about her background and to introduce her to the Georgia Tech and College of Computing communities.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Two new assistant professors joined the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) faculty this fall. Lu Mi comes to Georgia Tech from the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, where she was a Shanahan Foundation Fellow. "}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2024-10-17 19:00:39","changed_gmt":"2024-10-17 19:06:02","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-10-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-10-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"675349":{"id":"675349","type":"image","title":"Story Cover.jpg","body":null,"created":"1729191699","gmt_created":"2024-10-17 19:01:39","changed":"1729191699","gmt_changed":"2024-10-17 19:01:39","alt":"New CSE Faculty Lu Mi","file":{"fid":"258962","name":"Story Cover.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/17\/Story%20Cover.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/17\/Story%20Cover.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":68737,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/10\/17\/Story%20Cover.jpg?itok=EU-819PB"}}},"media_ids":["675349"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/new-faculty-pluses-schools-expertise-neuroscience-and-artificial-intelligence","title":"New Faculty Pluses School\u2019s Expertise in Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"}],"keywords":[{"id":"172970","name":"go-neuro"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"172288","name":"School of Computational Science Engineering"},{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"2556","name":"artificial intelligence"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"193656","name":"Neuro Next Initiative"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}